Tag Archives: Best Practice

Children are, because of easy access to the internet through home computers and smart phones, migrating to the internet much earlier. It normally starts with innocent free online games, then they join some social networks, get their first internet iPod Touch with internet access and then they take possession of the family computer for homework and projects. Before you know it, your kids have more social networks than us parents. What’s even scarier is the fact that they probably know more about these social networks than us, but with less interest in preserving their privacy, which then opens serious security concerns for your kids and for the family.

It’s becoming more and more important that parents have the serious conversation with our kids about online security and best practices. How many parents have even had this conversation with their kids and how many have helped their kids implementing safer policies on their Facebook account?

For some kids, taking a photo with their smart phone and posting on their Facebook page is fairly innocent. But some of these photos should not be shared with the World and may actually cause harm to some individuals, especially if these images are circulated among groups making fun of people – hence the term cyber bullying.

Many new businesses and existing customers who in recent months have started to ask HiberniaEvros to take on more managed services. This would range from managing their server room to taking over the management of a large part of the IT organization. There are many reasons for businesses to look to managed service providers, as it allows the business to focus on it’s main objectives – providing services to their clients and to generate revenue.

But, what does it actually mean being a managed service provider?

Well, a managed service provider takes on the management and delivery of primarily IT related services, such as administrating a client’s network infrastructure, support business applications, manages enterprise hardware (servers, switches, etc.) and even provides strategic support to senior management when reviewing business goals and objectives, and how the IT strategy can support achieving these.

The majority of so-called service providers, only delivers parts of the service, but not necessarily the full end-to-end service. This is where HiberniaEvros comes into the equation. We deliver a full end-to-end customized solution.

When do you know if you need the assistance of HiberniaEvros’ managed services?

There are many factors that may determine or guide your decision to engage a managed service provider, which could wary –

Managing the infrastructure between office is time-consuming, but yet critical

Server farm is growing and becoming difficult to manage

There’s a need to streamline and optimize the support organisation

Company is looking for way to reduce cost, in a challenging economy

New technologies are being deployed that requires specialized skills

Now, you might wonder “why should I go with HiberniaEvros?”.

It’s a fair question, and the competition is fierce these days. However, don’t just take our word for, but the fact that HiberniaEvros was awarded one of the best managed companies in Ireland, by Deloitte, in 2012.

The Deloitte Best Managed Companies awards programme has been developed to recognise Irish companies on the island of Ireland operating at the highest levels of business performance. The programme seeks to identify best managed companies through an evaluation process that extends far beyond financial results.

One of the biggest benefits of working with a managed services provider such as HiberniaEvros, is that we discover and fix problems before they can affect your business. We can do that because we have highly skilled people monitoring your infrastructure 24/7. It is our job and responsibility to know your systems inside-out, and react accordingly, as well as preempt technical problems. This can only be done by having a proactive network monitoring, patch management and desktop optimization performed on a regular basis.

The main benefits from working with HiberniaEvros managed services are:

Following on from my previous post, “Concerning Cloud Security“, I asked our consultants a number of questions, to address some of the concerns there might be in regards to using a cloud hosting solution. If you have additional questions you want addressed, please feel free to post a comment below, contact us on 1890 911 211 or contact your nearest HiberniaEvros office

Are you just as confused as I am, when it comes to understanding the cloud lingo?

Well, the cloud nerds in HiberniaEvros have developed a quick little guide, which might just make it a little easier to understand.

IaaS

Infrastructure as a service, is a cloud infrastructure service. A virtualised environment is delivered as a service over the Internet by the provider. The infrastructure can include servers, storage, network equipment, and software. You normally pay for what you need or use.

SaaS

Software as a service, is a cloud application service. Applications are delivered over the Internet by the provider, so that the applications don’t have to be purchased, installed, and run on the customer’s computers. SaaS providers were previously referred to as ASP (application service providers). Please note, it may be somewhat limiting as to how much you can customise a Saas application.

PaaS

Platform as a service is a cloud platform service. The computing platform (operating system and associated services) is delivered as a service over the Internet by the provider. In short, it’s a virtualised desktop sitting in the cloud.

Private Cloud

Infrastructure is dedicated to the client with no multi-tenancy elements. Dedicated Servers, firewalls, networks and secure. But, it’s also a very expensive solution.

Managed Cloud

All infrastructure is maintained, monitored and alerted by the Cloud Provider, i.e. a Virtual IT Support Team. It can exist on dedicated infrastructure or a multi-tenancy environment.

Public Cloud

Services offered over the public Internet and available to anyone who wants to purchase the service. Standard products with no customisation.

DR Cloud

Specific term to Digital Planet. Live dedicated or stand-by Infrastructure intended to provide companies with a DR solution, using it a hot swappable in case of outages.

Cloud Storage

A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the Internet or another network to an offsite storage system maintained by a third party.

Cloud Sourcing

Replacing traditional IT services with cloud services.

Cloudware

Software that enables creating, deploying, running, or managing applications in the cloud.

Customer Self-service

A feature that allows customers to provision, manage, and terminate services themselves, without involving the service provider, via a Web interface or programmatic calls to service APIs.

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Please contact us if you want to meet up for a cloud discussion. Our team would be only too happy to clarify the cloud phenomenon further, and hopefully assist you choosing a solution that fits your requirements. Fill in the online form and we will contact you directly. You can call us on 1890 998 000 and we will be delighted to talk with you. Alternatively, you can mail us at info@digitalplanet.ie or click the cloud below.

The HiberniaEvros Technology Group is very proud to announce that we won an award at this year’s ICT Excellence Awards 2011. The ICT Excellence Awards, which took take place on the 19th May, showcase the very best from the ICT Industry in Ireland, highlighting how innovative, creative and robust the industry is.

For the past 10 years, ICT has been awarding the ICT Excellence Awards to companies from the ICT Industry in Ireland. In order to participate in the annual nomination, companies have to submit an application form, outlining why they should be considered for an award.

“The ICT Excellence Awards have for some time now demonstrated just how many innovative and creative companies exist in the Irish market. They have set the benchmark for people to demonstrate skill and diversity“, Eoin O’Driscoll, Managing Director, Aderra

The ICT Excellence Awards are divided into two main category groups; Projects and Business Awards, with the Business Awards divided into a further 12 categories, each focusing on the strong attributes and skills required to be considered for the award.

HiberniaEvros was shortlisted for the Corporate, Social and Environmental Initiative of the Year. This award is presented to a company who demonstrated an outstanding recognition of the technology industry’s responsibility to environmental best practice.

The list of shortlisted candidates was amazing, and consisted of EMC, Intel and Microsoft – very strong competition indeed for this prestigious award. Each of these organisations are known for having excellent CSR initiatives and have shown year-on-year that they are committed to supporting their local communities.

So, it was a very proud moment when the name of HiberniaEvros was announced at the ceremony, and this recognises HiberniaEvros’ positive contribution to our local environment.

The initiative that secured us the victory was our “Leaders on our Level” conference, which took place in Croke park earlier this year. The aim of the conference was to teach Transition Year students about leadership, help them understand their choices and provide a framework to understand long-term consequences to the actions and choices they take.

HiberniaEvros will continue to work on such initiatives as it both inspires and encourages our young people. The future can be bright, if you build a proper framework for the future.

Almost a year ago, HiberniaEvros posted a long list of questions that all SME’s should ask their outsourcing and managed services provider, making sure they get a top class service. In case you didn’t get a chance to look at these questions, then you can read the post here.

I think it’s fair to say that these questions are still very much relevant, as more and more organisations are moving to or looking at ways of reducing operational costs. Many organisations are as a result looking at outsourcing parts or all of their operations services; applications and hardware (servers, storage, etc.). Some of the reasons behind outsourcing applications and hardware are primarily focussed on reducing capital investments, but this will often have an impact on staff numbers too.

Once a piece of technology has been ‘removed’ from the premises, then back office staff become redundant – or at least redundant in some of their daily responsibilities. Hopefully these resources can be applied to other parts of the IT organisation. That said, you still need to have staff to monitor and support infrastructure, despite it no longer being on the premises.

€250,000 Technology Upgrade for Netwatch Systems

HiberniaEvros has implemented a new IT infrastructure worth €250,000 for Netwatch Limited, the technology based asset protection company.

Netwatch is an award-winning provider of remote visual monitoring services worldwide and has pioneered some of the biggest advances in video transmission technology.

The company’s unique technology allows highly trained Intervention Specialists in the Netwatch Emergency Response Centre to watch in real-time any intrusion at a client premises and more importantly, speak directly to the intruders, clearing them from the site thus preventing theft and damage to property.

“We moved to a new HQ recently and needed to implement a suitable IT system to meet the demands of a growing customer base,” commented Adrian Norton, General Manager, Netwatch Limited. “We needed a partner who had experience in delivering a project on time and on budget.”

Following a tender process HiberniaEvros was selected to deliver a virtualization solution using shared storage.

“Our professional services team carried out a capacity planning exercise using the VMWare capacity planning tool,” added John Kennedy, Sales & Marketing Director, HiberniaEvros. “The team then designed a solution based on Microsoft and HP technology.”

The new IT infrastructure, which was implemented in three weeks, involved the deployment of virtualization, data replication, MSA 2012i storage, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft licensing. Hibernia Evros also provided training support.

Most people use it on a daily basis, but do we actually use it safely?

Just as a FYI, when you hit send in your email, the email has actually left the building. Once gone, you cannot recall the email, so you’d better make sure it should have gone.

Some companies have put in measures to prevent staff from sending emails, by having enabled a centralised email profile that only can be used by selected users or have created rules on the infrastructure to prevent users from sending emails externally. But, ignoring those exceptions, there’s very little you can do to recall an email, once you’ve clicked send. By the time staff realise what has happened, the damage is done – they have leaked the information.

In recent months, there have been several incidents in many large organisations. Staff has made serious mis-judged decisions on what to send and emails have left the safety of the draft folder, and found comfort in an inbox somewhere in the World. Unfortunately, some emails should never have been sent, because the information in the email is incorrect, the recipient email address is wrong or the email was of an inappropriate manner. Few people actually consider or comprehend the impact such an incident can have on the company.

Some of the more straight forward concerns are obviously that the company may be seen as unreliable, but this could have a financial impact on the company. Depending on the nature of the email and it’s content, the company could lose clients and revenue, if clients perceive the company for treating data in a laissez-faire manner.

How do you avoid these things from happening? One of the best ways is to use common sense. You don’t send a snail-mail to wrong address. Employees must remember that an email is just like sending a postcard: anyone who wants to find/intercept it will find a way to read it. So, when sending mails, no matter the level you have in the organisation, you need to consider some basic email ethics and rules:

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